31/03/2026
Well said,our stallion Chances Cellos Chick was a great cross over horse , multiple Reserve Champion cutting futuritys and ACA Restricted Open Horse of the year.
The specialist genetics the QH has brought to Australia has vastly contributed to many more people involved in everyday performance events, it’s grown the overall business.
Yours Truly: A new beginning for the Great Australian Horse.
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Australia is going through a tough time right now.
But things might not be as bad as they seem.
Because - when the going gets tough - the tough get going.
Hardship has a way of making us focus on what really matters, and hardship can help force positive change so good things can happen.
The controversial ASHS vote now set down for May is an attempt to elevate the status of the Heritage Horse and either dilute or ‘weed out’ all the other interwoven breeds so that a single ‘gene-stream’ will dominate the stud book.
How did it all come to this?
It appears that a handful of hobby-breeders wearing hats big enough to start their own solar farm on have managed to gain Board status.
Once this happened, they then joined forces in an attempt to try and re-write the ASHS rulebook.
They have come up with the bright idea that the Australian Stock Horse Society was only created in 1971 to protect the bloodlines of the ‘heritage horse’.
As far as they are concerned, that means that all the other bloodlines - especially those of the American Quarter Horse - should be slowly eradicated like a mob of feral donkeys.
It is a scene reminiscent of one of those knife-edge dramas from Yellowstone.
The normal pathway for important issues in the ASHS is from branch level to management council and then onto a board meeting .
Instead, this shock-and-awe tactic has been played from board level directly against the membership.
It’s straight from the political handbook of Anthony Albanese and and Daniel Andrews.
Naturally, ASHS members - who, like the Dinosaurs had no idea about the size of the flaming meteorite about to hit them - are now wandering around in circles in a cloud of confusion.
But guess what?
It might turn out to be a blessing in disguise.
With a little bit of luck it might even force us to focus on what we need instead of putting up with what we get.
Let’s be fair: those behind the campaign to make the Heritage horse the dominant breed should be entitled to their own beliefs.
However, they do not have the right to expect the rest of us to pay the cost.
There is a simple solution: they can build themselves a brand-new granny flat and create their own seperate registry for the Heritage Horse.
Since they obviously need to learn a few lessons about genetics, they can always refer to a copy of the American Standard of Perfection, the famous poultry breeders handbook.
It’s only $72 and really easy to order on-line.
That way, they can preserve the type of horse they want, just like Jan and Inge Bouman decided to do back with the Przewalski horse.
The plan for the ‘heritage domination’ and the ‘purging out’ of any Quarter Horse influence has been in the planning stages for a long time before the membership was informed about what was happening.
Which takes us to a very simple conclusion.
The responsibility of any elected Board directorship means a total commitment to governance, compliance and strategy - or we have all lost the plot.
Right now, it would seem that public trust in the ASHS Board has either been destroyed or irreparably damaged.
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From the outset, It’s important we use the term ‘type’ to refer to ASHS horses because it is a complete
fabrication to claim we have
created an ‘ASHS breed’ in only five generations.
Consider the basic facts: the ASHS was founded in 1971, which means that the Society is now 55 years old.
Since a horse generation is considered to be 10 to 12 years, that gives us only five generations of pedigrees that have been ‘validated’ by a breed society.
The use of the term ‘validated’ is, however, dangerously presumptuous, because DNA has only been mandatory in the ASHS from 2026 - yes, this very year.
That means that the previous 55 years of pedigrees have never been validated by any DNA testing at all.
This is deeply concerning, because it seriously matters that pedigrees are accurate.
The Australian Thoroughbred Stud Book (ASB) did the DNA of every horse over 35 years ago and then went about correcting pedigrees.
By comparison, there are serious questions around a vast number of horses that are now conveniently claimed to be ‘Heritage Horses.’
The evidence suggests that many of these horses were actually Thoroughbreds that had not been properly identified in their original registration.
It was easy to make mistakes: a name might have been misspelled, for instance, or a horse recorded without any knowledge of its full pedigree.
In the early days, very few people had access to the expensive. Leather bound thoroughbred stud books.
Education was extremely limited in the early days of rural Australia and many people struggled with basic reading and writing skills.
The rough ‘ thumbnail dipped in tar’ recording of many horse pedigrees reflect this.
Accuracy seriously matters, however, because it can prove if a horse was descended from a Stud Book Thoroughbred or descended from a so-called ‘Heritage horse.’
Nobody will deny that Saladin, Cecil Bruce, Radium, Medlow and Bobbie Bruce were not genuine stock horse stallions that went on to produce a long line of descendants.
On the other hand , once we have DNA-validated accuracy in our pedigrees, then we will only then be able to assess the extent of the role played by the Stud Book Thoroughbred in the making of the ASHS.
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Eighteen months ago, I was examining the pedigree of a horse that was descended from the Bangle family (Foundation Mare) when I noticed several glaring issues.
The first was that an entire generation of her female side had somehow gone missing:
Her pedigree is: Bangle (Young Valais) from Wongle 2 (Bobbed Steel) from Wongle 1 (Dart) from Widden Lass (Prodigal)
The inclusion of Wongle 2 (Bobbed Steel) had been somehow completely removed.
I cross-checked the ASHS pedigree with the meticulously hand-written pedigree I was given by Mr Ventry McLellan when I bought four Yarranoo fillies from him back in 1983 - 42 years ago.
I also noticed that the full extended pedigree of Cardonis Breeze (dam of Hazelwood Romance and grand dam of Hazelwood Conman) had not been updated, despite the fact that her extended pedigree was fully validated and easily available from Peter Haydon at the Haydon Horse Stud.
This was apparently due to an antiquated rule of the ASHS.
Both Cardonis Breeze and Widden Lass are enormously important Foundation Mares who have now produced thousands of descendants which are, in turn, now owned by thousands of owners and breeders.
On the 24 July 2024, I wrote and asked the ASHS to correct and update both these pedigrees as a service to my fellow breeders.
Since I received no response at all from the Society, I contacted them again to see if my email had actually been received.
I then contacted them a second time to see if I might be able to receive the common courtesy of a response.
There was none.
Several months later, I received a call from Peter Haydon to say that the pedigree of Hazelwood Romance had been updated and that he had been informed by the ASHS.
I later saw on the online stud book that the pedigree of Widden Lass had been corrected as well.
I had forgotten about it by the time I finally received a letter from the ASHS General Manager as a response on the 26 August 2025 - some thirteen months later.
It included this rather curious paragraph: “The Board continues to support the concept that pedigrees are based on original applications and/or early research conducted by the Society.
“Additionally, for many registered horses, the society acknowledges that breeders may have (and journalists may obtain) additional alternate records to those of the Society.”
So that’s obviously me then - the pesky bloody journalist.
It’s a good thing they didn’t bother to note that I’ve also been member for 55 years, or that I’ve bred more than a couple of hundred horses in the meantime.
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So where is this whole ‘Heritage controversy’ going to take us?
Over the past few weeks I have been contacted by a staggering number of people.
They have all willingly given me their names and full contact details.
Disturbingly, a number of senior judges have told me the same story - how they have allegedly felt ‘pressured’ to select horses on ‘type’ instead of the usual benchmarks of conformation, correctness and movement.
In addition, people on event committees have alleged it is now difficult to get judges because judges are telling them they no longer want to judge because they have felt ‘pressured’ to judge predominantly on ‘type’.
This suggests more than a deeply alarming culture of bullying within the ASHS: it suggests there is a complete ignorance of how genetics actually works
Because physical type is no guarantee of physical ability.
Which takes us to even more hard questions.
What is the real elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about?
Why have so many people - once such enthusiastic members - walked away from the ASHS?
Why are people so resentful about being forced to wear the “green and gold uniform’ they feel “makes us look like adult pony club..”
Given that Australians are known for their colourful Individuality and fierce independence, it seems almost bizarre for a breed society to demand that adults wear a uniform for a leisure sport.
Here’s another good question: is it true that many people now only maintain their membership so they can register their horses to get them into major sales?
Is it true about one in three registrations are made simply to sell a horse?
And there’s a couple of even more vexing, urgent questions .
How about the argument that we should be rewarding horses for their performance - and not simply rewarding them for type?
Because performance is still the only criteria that really matters to the vast majority of Australian breeders.
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And now we have the final, red-hot question that must be asked.
Is it time to start something like an Australian Performance Horse Association where performance can actually be rewarded?
Over the last few years, the famous filmmaker and owner of the legendary 6666 Ranch, Taylor Sheridan has driven the American Quarter Horse into a completely different stratosphere.
Sheridan created the smash hit series Yellowstone which has almost single-handedly been attributed for the massive resurgence of interest in the entire western horse industry.
Stallions such as the cutting horse stallion Third Edge have sold for up to
AUS $8.1 million - and look at what Sheridan is doing to transform the American Reining industry.
It’s brilliantly creative and fabulously exciting stuff - and it makes our young Australian horsemen and women want to go and become part of the action over there.
So let’s ask ourselves the final, multi-million dollar question: how much clever innovation and cutting edge marketing have we seen coming out of the ASHS head office lately?
In fact, Is the ASHS still even relevant?
And finally - are they still even in the same century?
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Back in 1984, I founded the Cloncurry Stockmen’s Challenge as a memorial for my late father, Reg Brown of Nonda Downs.
I deliberately chose the word ‘Challenge’ to describe the event because I wanted to ‘challenge’ people and make them want to learn completely brave new things to lift the standard of our horses and our horsemanship.
I enlisted the help of two good friends, my neighbour Peter Andy and my trainer Ian Francis, and we worked together to make it a reality.
If we fast forward 42 years, there are now over 187 Challenges being held across Australia.
It has become its own booming industry and many industry leaders suggest it may even one day become bigger than camp drafting because of the difficulties in getting big numbers of cattle.
But here’s a little secret for you: for the first 15 years or more, the ASHS didn’t want anything to do with the Cloncurry Stockman’s Challenge. .
Our formula was too radical and too unique: a combination of all breeds of horse (including unregistered horses), an under-five age limit and the introduction of an American Reining pattern alongside a soft Australian camp draft.
Looking back, I guess it was much too fresh and much too dangerous for all the tweed coats and traditionalists in Scone.
I was subsequently tarred and feathered as a ‘troublemaker’ and my actions were called “unAustralian” for many years.
It was a badge I wore with pride, because I truly believed where the vision would take us.
By the time the ASHS office in Scone offered us a green and gold felt ribbon as a peace offering, nobody really cared. .
Next, I committed the ultimate crime by using American Quarter Horse stallions over my best Nonda mares.
It added even more salt to the wound.
In fact, I used Docs Freckles Oak only eight years after I started the Cloncurry Stockmen’s Challenge.
I had seen horses with his exact bloodlines competing at the Reno Cow Horse Futurity.
I had the unshakeable, covered in goosebumps feeling that I had seen the future.
Freck was a beautiful, kind, charismatic and incredibly gifted cutting horse whose grand-sire was a big, handsome Thoroughbred called Three Bars.
He ticked every box for me, so it was a no-brainer.
I bred a beautiful chestnut filly called Let’s Talk Later in my very first crop by Freck in 1992.
The filly went on to final in the NCHA Futurity, Final in the NCHA Derby and then ran second at the NCHA National Finals ridden by Robert Mackay.
After I retired her from cutting, she went on to win the 2000 Warwick Gold Cup with Terry Hall, amongst a string of other big camp drafting wins and fastest round awards.
In fact, Let’s Talk Later remains the only horse in Australia to make it to the absolute pinnacle of both cutting and camp drafting.
Pretty good salt in the wound, if you ask me.
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In 2007 - a young Landmark agent called Mark Barton witnessed the growing dissatisfaction of vendors at the Dalby Stock Horse sale.
It was back in the days when there was almost no shelter except four old trees and a tin grandstand, agents felt completely entitled to abuse you - and you needed to find a hose to even get a drink of water.
Mark Barton went to the ASHS Board and offered to put up a $50,000 incentive for the sale if he could sell alongside their existing agent Elders - and then suggested that Elders might like to do the same .
That meant the dusty old Dalby sale would suddenly have an amazing $100,000 incentive to offer to its sale graduates.
But - similar to that famous scene from the movie The Castle - the ASHS Board told Mark Barton “he was dreamin’.”
They told him to bu**er off.
So he did.
It’s now history that Mark Barton and his good mate, the late Charlie Mahar, went on to create the Landmark Classic Sale, now known as the Nutrien Sale series.
Eighteen years later, the 2026 Nutrien Sale at Tamworth sold 700 horses for $15 million.
In addition to this, the 2025 Nutrien Toowoomba sale sold 400 horses for $5 million.
While both are a mixed breeds sale, around 50% of the horses were ASHS.
So that’s a thousand plus horses sold and a $20 million gross over the last ten months alone.
In total, they have now sold 8,902 horses over 18 years for a massive gross of $164.3 million.
And that’s $164.3 million that has gone straight back into the pockets of rural Australia.
Not bad for a bloke who was told by the ASHS Board to bu**er off.
The Nutrien sale series is now widely credited with changing the entire face of the Australian performance horse industry.
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So there you have it.
Plenty of people are saying that it might be time for us to think a whole lot bigger and try to find our own solutions.
Sure, breaking up is hard to do, as that old master of melody Neil Sedaka used to sing to us back in the Seventies.
Yes, the whole situation is regrettable for so many reasons, particularly all the blood, sweat and tears given so willingly by so many thousands of members over 55 years..
But even the most optimistic amongst us might agree that this is a terrible mess that really needs fixing.
And if we don’t take a stand and insist we are so much better than this, then we are at risk of allowing people with their own agendas take away everything we ever stood for.
There’s one simple truth: change is the only guaranteed constant in life.
If we don’t made the decision to innovate and focus on creating a world-class product, then we are not going to have any future at all.
The world is now moving so fast we are At at risk of being left behind..
We need to lead the pack and seize on what they call ‘first mover advantage’.
Given the extraordinary capacity of artificial intelligence and technology, it would be fairly easy to create a performance registry in record time.
Once we do that, selected committees can then sit down together for two days and design a black-type system similar to the thoroughbred pattern committee where every event is rated so the performance status of every horse and its family can be included in a sale catalogue .
We have some of the finest horses in the world in Australia: they are tough, sound and brilliant athletes.
We owe them the best, most visionary administrators, the most brilliant marketers and the brightest innovators to take our industry into a brand new future.
Our horses - and our next generation of horsemen and women - surely deserve nothing less.
(Ends)
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Footnote: It’s true. I love Australia and I love Australian horses.
It’s time for us to stand together and find a new path forward.
PS: my special thanks to Denzel for so generously allowing me to use his page. (There he was, just minding his own business .. 🙄😂)
